...A further study led by Dr Connolly analyzed colony failures over winter across the country. Of 89 colonies that had fed on oilseed rape, 27 failed, a death rate of 30 per cent. By contrast, 13 out of 82 colonies which had not fed on oilseed rape died – a smaller failure rate of 16 per cent. ...

.I got a researcher education n biology in Helsinki university. Then I was in duty of environmeltal protection in city cuncil 14year. After that i worked in pulc works and my big studies in that area were "city construction logistics" and "re engineering of city maintenance logistics".

I have not done any CCD studies and I will not report about things what I have NOT done.

I have very good skill to evaluate, what information I can trust on. That I have done in my work almost 40 years.

USA has quite many universities which have recources and guys whose duty is to research CCD and they are payed for that. I have ability to read from original reports what they have found out.

I have found many funny things about CCD news. for example in Eastern Europe they do not even calculate how many hives they have. How can they tell how many have died. Same in China.

In Scotland one old beekeeper lost his 8 hives. He told to newspaper man that CCD is here and it will kill hives in UK. In next newspaper it was the same text but headline was "Humankind will die if bees die". And the same story went around the world 4 years.

In UK they all shouted that hives are dying. Then statistic told that hives were 60% more than 2 years ago..

In Scotland one old beekeeper lost his 8 hives. He told to newspaper man that CCD is here and it will kill hives in UK. In next newspaper it was the same text but headline was "Humankind will die if bees die". And the same story went around the world 4 years.

So you have never seen CCD for yourself then.

I haven't heard that story of the old Scotsman that went around the world, could you please provide a link to it?

As I live in Scotland I am sure I would have heard about that old man, if the story you told was true.Soon as you can't provide a link to it I have to assume that you made it up.

- Why do you try to confuse the issue?

My thoughts on CCD:

As to the strange phenomenon of the colonies suddenly dwindling away to nothing months after exposure to neonics:

I have followed these cases closely and I concluded that CCD usually follows the consumption of contaminated pollen late in the season, July and August in most places.

If the exposure to neonics happens earlier, queen failures are often observed, as well as increased susceptibility to varroa, nosema, etc. and even robbing by wasps, as the bees seem too dazed to defend the hive properly.

But the late season exposure through pollen affects the young bees that are supposed to be reared as winter bees. They need to consume larger amounts of pollen than usual, in order to build up their fat bodies.

Could it be that these bees are too dazed to recognize the shortening daylength, which is supposed to trigger them to gorge themselves on pollen?

In that case you would end up with a colony full of short lived summer bees instead of winter bees, which would all leave the hive at around the same time during winter, when their fat reserves are used up - creating the classic look of CCD.

#1. Australia uses neonicotinoids and they have yet to report any CCD.

#2. The multiple University and Government labs here in the USA that have sampled and tested bees from collapsed hives have all come to the same conclusions: The bees expressed the same symptoms, but tests reveal that the samples each carry different diseases, pests and viruses. So other than the symptoms there is no common denominator.

My theory is the bees have always been collapsing and we just never had an adequate reporting system in place to establish the trend. What do the effected countries have that the non-effected Countries do not? Commercial beekeepers who have 20 k-80 k hives. When a guy looses 60% of 12 hives that is not news and doesn't get reported. When a guys looses 10,000 hives and is on the news crying about how much money he just lost and how doomed the worlds food supply is.... That is news.

My other theory is that aliens from a far away planet killed all their bees with pesticides before they realized how important bees were... Now they suck ours from their hives in the night and take them back with them to pollinate almonds.

Received 23 September 2011Received in revised form 1 December 2011Accepted 2 December 2011Available online 7 December 2011

abstract

In modern managed agro-ecosystems, the supply of adequate food from blooming crops is limited to brief periods. During periods of pollen deficiencies, bees are forced to forage on alternative crops, such as maize. However, pollen of maize is believed to be a minor food source for bees as it is thought to be lacking in proteins and essential amino acids. This study was conducted to verify this assumption. In maize, a strikingly low concentration of histidine was found, but the amount of all other essential amino acids was greater than that of mixed pollen. The performance and the immunocompetence of bees consuming a pure maize pollen diet (A) was compared to bees feeding on a polyfloral pollen diet (B) and to bees feeding on an artificial substitute of pollen (C). Consumption of diets A and C were linked to a reduction in brood rearing and lifespan. However, no immunological effects were observed based on two parameters of the humoral immunity.

...Mixed pollen was collected by bees in June 2009 during the off-bloom period of maize using commercial pollen traps. The pollen loads were removed daily in the evening and frozen to 18C. Before the pollen was fed to the bees (colonies and caged bees) the pollen loads were ground and later mixed with honeydew honey (fir tree) to create a paste (ratio 2.5:1, wt/wt). Maize pollen (variety ‘‘Athletico’’ KWS, Einbeck, Germany) was collected by hand,...

No indication if this maize was treated with neonics or not!

The poor results on the maize pollen diet might well have come from pesticides rather than from poor nutrition.

Bees tend to compensate for poor amino acid content in pollen simply by eating more of it, and I had my bees taking in lots of untreated maize pollen without any ill effect, they were thriving. This was in the '90s in Austria, my bees foraged on maize in summer while other pollen was in short supply.

As humans expand corn production around the world along with all its required added chemicals, and bees have less and less variety of plants to forage, thus becoming increasingly dependant on a source of pollen that they wouldn't normally take home anyway..............................

I think we may be on to something here ;) Today's 'industrial corn' is a far cry from what it was even in the 90's.

« Last Edit: March 07, 2013, 10:08:30 AM by T Beek »

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"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

The problem with massive corn (mono culture) fields and the chemicals necessary for its dominion around the globe are the 'perimeters' where bees are attracted to weeds' loaded w/ whatever the farmer placed on their corn or in the dust in the soil...........well, you get the idea.

As Finski said, corn isn't a first choice for bees in fact its a poor choice, BUT IF THAT'S ALL THEY CAN FIND IN ABUNDANCE..........perhaps we should just ban corn? :-D

One could probably replace corn with just about any other major 'industrialized' crop that bees 'may or may not' feed on directly, but be feeding on something else nearby, yet are still exposed to "who knows what" before returning home.

I still say the 'primary cause' and spread of CCD is BAD BEEKEEPING. :-D

What in heck a beekeeper thinks if he puts his hives on corn field?How many hives per hectar?

It is same with wheat, hay, or what ever which do not give yield.

But the truth seems to be that hives become sick if they are too much on monoculture fields. Blueberry, granberry, strawberry. They are not good food sources. Sunflower pollen has too quite poor nutrition value.

Finski; Have you been to America's Midwest? What you describe is precisely what many American Beeks deliberately do.

If someone wants to keep honeybees and they live say, in IOWA or anywhere surrounded by mono culture and/or w/ limited wild forage availability, their bees will likely consume great quantities of corn pollen along with whatever chemical residue remains on the weeds within the perimeters of the fields. They have little choice but to consume substandard nourishment or die and it seems to me, that's exactly what many are doing.

Add to that the example of the current practice of shipping bees all over the country, selling package bees around the US after they've built up as colonies on almonds in California, starting out 'who knows' where, causing considerable stress on an already stressed insect.

What causes CCD? WE DO!

Logged

"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

Finski; Have you been to America's Midwest? What you describe is precisely what many American Beeks deliberately do.

If someone wants to keep honeybees and they live say, in IOWA or anywhere surrounded by mono culture and/or w/ limited wild forage availability, their bees will likely consume great quantities of corn pollen along with whatever chemical residue remains on the weeds within the perimeters of the fields. They have little choice but to consume substandard nourishment or die and it seems to me, that's exactly what many are doing.

Add to that the example of the current practice of shipping bees all over the country, selling package bees around the US after they've built up as colonies on almonds in California, starting out 'who knows' where, causing considerable stress on an already stressed insect.

What causes CCD? WE DO!

you describe it well, I think.

I write just an article about bee nutrition.I have never thought nutrition in this way:

A bee egg grows 5 fold every day during 6 day..Growing is 1000 fold.

First 3 days and larva is only 5% out its final weight. The final swelling happens on last half of larva life.

Even if brood cycle is 3 weeks, the food feeded in 5 days must be something special.

The hive must feed for example 5000 larvae at same time with huge speed, week after week.How can we disturbe them? Making all kind of tricks to "encourage them".But have the bees asked to help them?

This perhaps explain something when hives are taken to their pollination tournament.Perhaps they not stand all what we believe. They are just bugs..